Annamaria on Electoral College Day
Today - Monday, 14 December 2020 - Members of the Electoral College will cast their votes and declare that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has been elected President of the United States.
In a sense, this is a triumph, not only of one man over another or one party over another, but for the United States Democracy over those who would destroy it.
My country long-ago taught the rest of the world that a peaceful transfer of power was possible in a democracy. It began with our first, and I think most important President, George Washington. After two terms in office, he stepped aside by refusing to seek another four-year term. That act forced the country to elect a second President. And since George Washington put the world's first nascent democracy on that path, the transfer of power has peacefully taken place.
Even twenty years ago, when Al Gore won 51% of all votes cast and a mob of preppy Republicans rioted, stopping the Florida vote count, and the Supreme Court then found for Bush, Gore capitulated. Because Gore played on the Patriots team. Their motto: The sanctity of our democracy comes first.
I don't think anyone wants to read a recounting of what has gone on with lawsuits since Trump lost last month's election. I will just summarize by saying that all of the Republicans' efforts to overturn the will of the people with political wrangling have failed. Their lawsuits have been dismissed as specious and without merit by every judge they have come before. The Supreme Court, where four of the nine justices are Trump appointees, has repudiated Trump and his political lackeys by refusing to consider their last-ditch-effort lawsuit.
Which brings us to the Patriots' opposition in this game, a team I will call the Traitors. In the final inning, these are the 18 state attorneys general and the 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who have joined that spurious lawsuit that seeked not only to overturn twenty million votes in four states. They also tried to throw US citizens' faith in our electoral process in the dumpster. And set it on fire. What has gone into the bin, I pray forever, was their vicious effort to seize power by unconstitutional means.
I would like to say, "And that will be that." But the battle between the Patriots and the Traitors is likely to go on. Hopefully that war will confine itself to the elephant in the room: the Republican Party. Many patriotic Republicans have sided with the Constitution. Michael Steele, for instance. A former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Steele is quoted - regarding that final lawsuit - in this past Saturday's New York Times, saying "It's an offense to the Constitution and it leaves an indelible stain that will be hard for these 126 members to wipe off their political skin for a long time to come."
Also playing for the Patriots are the Republican former governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, about whom I never expected to say one good word. That same Times article puts her in league with our own Kwei Quartey when it comes to the cult of Trump. "I keep comparing it somewhat to Jonestown. They've all drunk the Kool-Aid. It just hasn't killed them yet."
There are other prominent Republicans who have objected to this attack on the Constitution, notably Mitt Romney and Chris Sununu who have scored for the Patriots.
Cheerleading for the Traitors are such incomprehensible enablers as the redoubtable Lindsey Graham and California's Kevin McCarthy.
The Traitors' General Manager Mitch McConnell showed the team colors in 2008, when he said he thought it was his job for "the next four years to make sure Barack Obama will be a one-term President." In other words, he would rather see the United States of America fail than to see a duly-elected Democratic President succeed.
Trump is still fiercely questioning the legitimacy of his defeat. Some of his loyal adherents are calling for red states to secede from the Union. The last time States tried that, the Federal Government fought a bloody civil war to preserve the Union. If the sore losers try it this time around, I am inclined to say, "Bye-bye. You can have President Trump and try to live without the dole you've been collecting from the US Federal Government. We'll keep all the tax money, which you have gotten more than your share of, for ourselves. And any Patriot players and supporters who want to stick with the Union are welcome in the still United States of Sane America."
But, thank heavens, for now anyway, that outcome is not a serious threat.
When the Electoral College votes today, all paths to overturn the election will be gone. We owe this to the great Patriot stars, many of them card-carrying Republicans. They managed the elections in their states according to the rules, saw that the votes were properly counted, and truthfully reported the results.
Today, the game is over. The Patriots have won this Peaceful Transfer of Power Tournament. The United States has endured the worst challenge to peaceful succession in its history.
My pick for MVP is a lifelong Republican who voted for Trump: Gabriel Sterling, Voting Systems Manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's Office. You can watch his most memorable shots in the game here:
Today the Patriots are victorious! The Constitution lives. Hurrah!
